Amsterdam Airport Schiphol -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It was impossible not to be deeply moved by Harun Calehr when he and his family joined Chris Cuomo live on `` New Day '' on Wednesday .

You see , up until that moment we had been detached .

We may have seen the bodies of the dead scattered across the Eastern Ukrainian countryside , distorted , rotting , a dog running from the crash site with something in its mouth .

Seen the scattered belongings , many strangely intact , the house keys , the Bali travel guide , the child 's toy perched on top of the wreckage , retrieved by a villager from where it had fallen from the sky .

We may have dashed along potted roads , finding new routes to avoid the shelling , pleading with the sun not to fall so we could be safer . Through check point after check point , guns aimed at us . Convoys of tanks and artillery on those same roads , belonging to both sides and wondered their destination , purpose and origin .

We may have sat across from the self-appointed Prime Minister of his self-declared Republic and asked him if he and his men , so many of whom are from Russia , had shot down the plane . Eye to eye , asked him if he was backed , armed and incited by Russia .

And we joined the OSCE monitors as they gathered around the train being used to transport the dead from this militia controlled so called Republic , and balked with them at the stench , the hacking , repulsive , gut wrenching smell as the refrigerated train door opened to reveal desperate , bagged and reeking cargo .

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But standing in front of a family who lost two of their children , ten year old Miguel and nineteen year old Shaka Calehr . Two bright lives , crushed by mistake or design . Looking at their mother , far too emotional to even speak . That was too much .

We came off air for a commercial break , but actually it was a break down . We 'd covered every angle of the story in Eastern Ukraine and standing in Amsterdam 's Schiphol airport , the origin of that desperate flight , surrounded by those paying their respects , laying flowers on Holland 's day of national mourning .

As journalists we are often fickle and fleeting in our gaze , but we remain proud and committed to impartiality . Too often impartiality breeds a lack of empathy , not wanting to be drawn too close to one side or the other .

But today was different . For the Calehr family , and those just like them , ripped apart , bereft and desperate for answers , this was never their war . We stood together , in front of the camera and then behind it , and we mourned too .

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CNN 's Chris Cuomo contributed to this report .

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Meeting the mother of victims 10-year-old Miguel and 19-year-old Shaka Calehr caused CNN journalists to break down

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The journalists saw dead bodies , had guns aimed at them at check points and were present when the dead were transported